Phillips Elementary School construction continues
PHILLIPS – Students at Phillips Elementary School have gotten an eyes-on lesson in construction this school year.
Since September, when students holding bright balloons watched as a three-handled shovel dug through and then tossed aside the dirt, a two-story addition has been going up.
Despite some uncooperative weather, now, halfway through construction, the building’s shell is complete, weather-tight and heated so crews can keep working through the colder months.
The addition will house three sunny classrooms for first- and second-graders, a library more than double the size of the current one and two small conference or teaching rooms.
As students are spread out into the addition, space will open up in the main building, meaning an arts classroom will be expanded.
Up three flights of stairs to the second story is a giant storage room, which SAD 58 superintendent and Phillips Principal Quenten Clark said will be used mostly for seasonal teaching materials.
The addition will add about 30 percent more space to the entire school.
Funding for the $823,000 addition comes out of a revolving renovation loan from the state, which forgives half the money and lends the other half to the district at no interest payable over the next 10 years.
The addition is in response to voters opting to close down the former Phillips Primary School last year because of air-quality issues.
K-2 students were moved into portable classrooms for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 school years. When the addition opens next fall to students, the portables will be emptied and K-2 students will attend class inside the main building or addition.
When the primary and middle schools were fused to create an elementary school, some parents expressed concern that 5-year-olds would mingle in the halls with teenagers and trouble would ensue.
Clark said just the opposite has occurred. “Parents worry about what the eighth-grader will do to the first-graders. But, in my experience, I’ve found that the eighth-graders actually look out for the younger kids and help take care of them. It’s been a good situation for us.”
The project is being completed by R & R Construction of Lewiston.
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